Bridges to the Heart
by soultaker78
Summary: Heather is feeling depressed about the outcome of the TDWT finale, so Cody arranges a little pick me for her. This causes Heather to consider him in a very different light. CodyxHeather.
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes: this takes place immediately following the TDWT finale. The Playa de Losers the former contestants were staying at prior to the Hawaii challenge was on another island that was not covered in molten rock.

…..

Heather was in a hotel room, not wanting to deal with any of the other contestants over her financially meaningless victory. _I can't believe I went through all that shit and have nothing to show for it, _Heather thought.

All the former contestants would be staying in Hawaii for a while. Alejandro and Ezekiel were at a hospital getting skin grafts for burns sustained from their lava baths. Seirra was also at the same hospital, finally getting treatment for the injuries she got from being blown up in Drumheller. Chris wasn't planning to send them back until the injured got better. Heather was planning to enjoy this time in Paradise once she was done mopping over the loss of one million dollars.

Heather was interrupted from her melancholy by a knock on her door. Heather wasn't entirely sure she should answer it, but decided to anyway. She opened the door and saw Cody, DJ and Harold standing in front of her holding packets of paper. "What the hell do you want?" Heather asked angrily.

"This was all Cody's idea," DJ said as he began backing away, letting his lack of a backbone dictate his actions once again.

"Calm down DJ," Cody said as he grabbed DJ's shirt and dragged him into the hotel room. Harold followed along. "To answer your question Heather," Cody began, "I've talked Harold and DJ into helping me give you a little token for your victory. I know it's not worth a million dollars, but I think you'll like it anyway. One, two, three, four," Cody said, signaling Harold and Cody to start singing from their sheets. Cody began singing first

**Try to be best, **

'**Cause you're only a girl**

**And a girl's gotta learn to take it**

Heather didn't know this at the time, but she was being treated to a slightly altered version of 'You're the best around' by Joe Esposito. Cody stopped as Harold began the next verse.

**Try to believe**

**Though the going gets rough**

**That you gotta hang tough to make it**

They certainly weren't the best singers in the world, but Heather found herself appreciating the gesture more than she thought she would. Harold paused as DJ handled the next part.

**History repeats itself**

**Try and you'll succeed**

All three joined in now.

**Never doubt that you're the one**

**And you can have your dreams!**

**You're the best!**

**Around!**

**Nothing's gonna ever keep you down**

**You're the Best!**

**Around! **

**Nothing's gonna ever keep you down**

**You're the Best!**

**Around!**

**Nothing's gonna ever keep you dow-ow-ow-ow-own**

Heather was enjoying this immensely. She had taken some crap on the boat ride to the hotel about how she had gone through a whole season of torture and challenges for no monetary gain, and now she was being serenaded about her own superiority. They all stopped as Cody handled the next part of the song.

**Fight 'til the end**

**Cause your life will depend**

**On the strength that you have inside you**

He stopped as Harold took over.

**Ah you gotta be proud**

**starin' out in the cloud**

**When the odds in the game defy you**

He tagged out with DJ for the next bit.

**Try your best to win them all**

**and one day time will tell**

They all started singing again.

**when you're the one that's standing there**

**you'll reach the final bell!**

**You're the best!**

**Around!**

**Nothing's gonna ever keep you down**

**You're the Best!**

**Around!**

**Nothing's gonna ever keep you down**

**You're the Best!**

**Around!**

**Nothing's gonna ever keep you dow-ow-ow-ho-how-ho-own**

They stopped and Cody took over.

**Fight 'til you drop**

**never stop**

**can't give up**

**Til you reach the top**

Harold stepped in now.

**you're the best in town **

**Listen to that sound**

**A little bit of all you got**

**Can never bring you down**

He stopped as DJ finished the song

**You're the best!**

**Around!**

**Nothing's gonna ever keep you down**

**You're the Best!**

**Around!**

Heather started clapping (and not in one of those ironic 80's claps) for the performance she had just received. "Thank you so much for that," Heather said without any hint of snark or venom. "This was probably some kind of joke to you, but you've really brightened up my day."

"This wasn't a joke Heather," Harold said. "You've chilled out a bit since season 1 and your acts of villainy have become more few and far between. Well, I've had fun here, but I've got to go. Bye."

Harold turned around and exited the room at a quick pace. "Where's he got to be that's so damn important?" Heather asked.

"Anywhere that's not here," Cody answered. "He's in kind of a tough spot. He doesn't think you're pure evil but if word of that got back to Leshawna, things would get awkward between the two of them. And they started going out recently, so he doesn't want to rock the boat yet. I'm lucky that I was able to convince him to go along with this."

"Which brings me to my next question," Heather continued. "Why did you want to do this for me? DJ I can understand: he's too nice for his own good. But after I arranged your defeat in Hawaii, how could you want to do anything nice for me?"

"Because I meant what I said earlier about you being the good guy," Cody said. "You defeated Alejandro, who spent like the whole season flying under everyone's radar while arranging eliminations. Look what he did to DJ: using his phobia over the animal curse to build up his confidence only to tear it down for like no reason."

"Which reminds me DJ," Heather interrupted. "Did that ever get dealt with or are you still the unwilling harbinger of death for all that is cute and fluffy?"

"It's been a while since the last time I sent an animal to the ICU, so I think so," DJ answered. "Speaking of the curse, I'm sorry I picked Alejandro over you in Newfoundland. It's just…. You came on so strong about asking for an alliance and then he casually comes by and says I'm not cursed anymore. Plus, Al's past was a blank slate compared to your history of untrustworthy actions. So I sided with him and look how that worked out for me. If I could back and choose again, I'd choose you."

"Thanks DJ," Heather said, a feeling of gratitude swelling inside her. She briefly felt the urge to hug DJ for his kind words, but was distracted from doing so by Cody.

"That's what I'm talking about," Cody spoke up. "You're not as irredeemably evil as so many people seem to think you are. You haven't been up to as many nasty tricks as you were in season 1. Plus, you kind of offered Courtney a shoulder to cry on after she found out about Gwen and Duncan, as well as offer Sierra that headdress to cover up her explosion-induced baldness. Do these sound like the things a heartless monster would do? I don't think so."

"Thanks Cody," Heather said as she fought back tears of gratitude. She politely but insistently asked them to leave and they did so after saying goodbye. Now that she was alone with her feelings, she stopped holding back let her tears from earlier flow. It was only a few tears as opposed to a full on crying fit so it didn't take long.

Heather was practically ecstatic: after months of fans and tabloids demonizing her into the virtual daughter of the devil, she just been given a heartwarming token of 'I don't think you're that bad'. It was even made even better by the fact that it had been given by a group of guys.

Ever since Heather had returned to the real world after the end of TDA, she had gone from practically every guy wanting to go out with her to being a social pariah. And now she had just had a guy extend an olive branch in her direction.

_Maybe I should make the most of this and ask him out, _Heather thought. She then gave herself a slap across the face. _What the hell am I thinking? He may be the first guy… scratch that, the first person in I don't-know-how-long to be nice to me with no ulterior motives, but he's still a geeky twerp._

_But if looks are so important, I should have gone against my better judgment and succumbed to my temptations with Alejandro, _another part of her mind countered. She began debating with herself the pros and cons of asking him out. This went on for quite some time. Eventually, Heather's reasons for going out with him (his niceness, the fact she hadn't been on a date in months, etc.) outweighed the one (his appearance which left much to be desired).

Heather placed her hands together in a praying manner. "Higher powers of all that is trendy and fashionable," Heather began, "please forgive me for what I am about to do."

…..

Author's notes: If you are wondering why Heather is so focused on Cody when DJ and Harold were there as well, that's because the song was all Cody's idea and they just helped. Also, it's the direction I want this story to go.

I would like to thank some people who helped with this story. The first is That Nixon Guy, who wrote his own CodyxHeather story over a year ago (that has been deleted) that won me over to this pairing. The second is Baconsandwichman, who gave me some suggestions for future chapters. I also took some topics from a conversation between Cody and Heather in the first chapter of his story, Total Drama Luxury Tour, and added to the in this story. The third is 100tenmillion, who gave me the idea for title.


	2. Chapter 2

Heather looked around for Cody and found him in a game room. Geoff, Harold, Trent, DJ were in the room as well. Cody was playing some kind of video game against Geoff. "Hi Heather," Trent said. "What brings you here?"

"I want," Heather began, then stopped to correct herself. "No, I need to talk to Cody."

"He'll done in a while: he needs to finish kicking Geoff's ass in Soul Calibur first," Trent explained. "What exactly do you need to talk to Cody about?"

"You'll see," Heather said, not wanting to say anything Cody might overhear that would ruin the surprise. About one minute later, Cody had won his game with Geoff.

"All right, who's next," Cody said as he looked around for a new challenger. "Hey Heather. How long have you been here?"

"Not long," heather answered. "I just came here to ask you something."

"What is it?" Cody asked.

Heather took a big sigh as she readied herself for what was to come. She still had trouble believing she was about to do this, but decided to take the plunge and get this over with. "Would you like to go out with me tomorrow?" Heather asked.

Cody stood with his mouth open as he processed this. "Woo hoo," Geoff shouted, happy for Cody that finally a girl warmed up to him (who wasn't an insane fangirl) after three seasons of pining for Gwen and not getting anywhere.

"I do have some ground rules though," Heather continued. "First, if you try to f%k with me, I will make you regret it. Second, keep your perviness in check if you know what's good for you. Third, I am dragging you to go shopping with me before our date to make sure you're dressed well. Fourth, if you try to f%k with me, I will make you regret it."

"You said that last one twice," Harold pointed out.

"Because it's twice as important as the other ones," Heather explained with a malicious grin to indicate it was not an idol theat.

"Can you give us some time to talk this over," Trent said to Heather as he pushed her out of the room and locked her out.

Cody pinched his arm to see if he was dreaming. He wasn't. "That really happened, didn't it?" he asked.

"It sure did, dude," Geoff said.

"You are not seriously considering going out with her, are you?" Trent asked.

"And why shouldn't he?" DJ asked.

"You don't think it's a little suspicious that she just asks him out like that out of nowhere?" Trent countered.

"It's not out of nowhere," DJ said then told Trent about how he, Harold and Cody serenaded to her from the 'Karate Kid' soundtrack and explained how the asking out was likely her idea of gratitude.

"What?" Trent said in surprise, not knowing about that before. "Why didn't I know about that?"

"Because Cody only asked people he was reasonably sure did not completely hate Heather," Harold explained. "You were excluded due to the possibility of you harboring ill will from the whole 'her kissing you incident' back on the island."

"All right," Trent said, knowing they were right not to think he'd be forgiving of Heather for that very reason (which he wasn't). "But what about those threats she made to beat up Cody? Are you cool with that?"

"Heather has dealt with people being very strongly and very openly anti-her for a quite some time now," Harold began. "If you don't see how that might make her a little bit on guard, I can explain it to you in a way that covers all the details and intricacies."

"Please don't," Trent said with a hint of fear in his voice, afraid he was about to be on the receiving end of one of Harold's nerdy tangents. "I mean, you've made your point."

"Come on Trent," Geoff said. "This is a great opportunity for Cody. Isn't that right?" he asked as he nudged Cody.

"Yes," Cody said, going with a one word answer because he doubted his ability to form complete sentences while still reeling from the shock of being asked out by Heather. He had heard everything that his friends had said about Heather but he had chosen not to say anything to avoid making an incoherent fool out of himself.

"Fine," Trent said begrudgingly as he went to unlock the door. He opened the door and saw Heather standing there, waiting for the boys' deliberating to come to an end. "You know Heather," Trent said to her, "if you just want to date Cody as a way to piss off Gwen, you'd have better luck with her ex-boyfriend: me."

"That's not why I'm doing this so get out of my way," Heather said as pushed her way past the guitarist back into the room.

"That was a test, Heather," Trent explained. "You passed."

"Hooray for me," Heather said with sarcasm that would have made Noah proud.

"And as for ground rules, I have one of my own: if you try to f%k with Cody, I will make you regret it."

"Whatever."

"I'm serious," Trent said in a very stern voice as he stood right next to Heather's face. "Cody deserves better than being a disposable pawn in whatever plan you might be hatching."

"That's enough Trent," DJ said as he walked up to the two and pushed them away from each other.

"Thanks DJ," Heather said. "Two things I forgot to mention before: first, I will need someone to come with me and Cody for the first part of our date."

"The clothes shopping?" Geoff asked.

"Yes," Heather clarified. "Any volunteers?" she asked and looked for reactions. Trent raised his hand as a sign. "Any other volunteers?" Heather asked. She was not too keen of the idea of Trent's accompaniment if he was going to keep being so suspicious and distrusting. For all she knew, he was already planning to sabotage them out of sense of trying to save Cody. While she was thinking this over, DJ raised his hand to volunteer. "Perfect. The second thing is that I would really much like all of you to keep quiet about this: at least until the actual date is over and done with."

"Of course we'll keep this to ourselves for now Heather," DJ said and was met with nods from the guys, save one. "Right Trent?" he asked the musician and got no response. "Right Trent?" he asked again more forcefully and followed through with a bump to the shoulder. He regretted being so unusually violent but as much as this was a great dating opportunity for Cody, it was also a great opportunity for Heather to take the first steps in becoming a nicer person. He had no intention of sitting by while Trent tried to take that away from her.

"Fine," Trent said begrudgingly. He had made his warning to Heather and was pretty sure she wasn't using Cody to get at Gwen thanks to his test, so he decided to follow his friends' lead and give the Heather the benefit of the doubt. At least for now.

"Fantastic," Heather said. She spent the next few minutes going over her plans for tomorrow with Cody. "Bye Cody," Heather said when she was done. She turned around, walked for a while then waved flirtaciously.

Cody waited a while for Heather to be out of ear-shot. With that out of the way, he raised his arms started shouting uproariously in celebration of what had just transpired. He started exchanging high fives with the others who in turn praised him for his good luck. Even Trent joined in on the good times, deciding for now that he was going to be happy for Cody.

Heather had not walked far enough away to be oblivious to Cody's jubilation. She didn't mind: as far as she was concerned, all that showed was how enthusiastic he was about the date.

When she had made it back to her room, she lied down on the bed. She had had a very long day: the final challenge against Alejandro, fleeing from a volcanic eruption, the boat ride to another island, being checked into the hotel, Cody's serenade, the errand she had run and finally asking him out. She could now rest for a while.

_I hope Cody's not going to be too excited to sleep tonight, _Heather thought. _Our date is going to suck if he has trouble staying awake on me._


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Heather met Cody and DJ outside a mall nearby the hotel. They all said their hellos and went inside. Heather led them to a high-priced clothing store. Cody looked around the men's section for anything that would look nice on him, unaware that Heather was way ahead of him.

"Cody," Heather called to get his attention, then held up several shirts against him to see how they'd look. She went through several shirts very quickly, finding none that she liked.

"Hey, that blue and white one looked pretty good," Cody said.

"Try not to take this the wrong way Cody," Heather began, "but I'm going to need you to shut up so I can concentrate. You're not exactly giving me much to work with."

"Do I get any say in what I'll be wearing tonight?" Cody asked.

"No," Heather said in a very flat and matter-of-fact tone as she continued looking at more clothes.

Cody was not sure how he felt about this arrangement. On one hand, being treated like a life sized Ken doll was humiliating and demeaning. On the other hand, Heather had a better idea about what she wanted out of this date more than he did.

_She's not very nice about it, _Cody began thinking, _but in her own way, she's helping me make the most of this opportunity. _Cody decided it was in his best interests to grin and bear it.

15 degrading minutes later, Heather had picked out an ensemble for Cody. He changed into a black jacket over a red dress shirt, with black pants and a matching belt. While in the changing booth, he had slicked back his hair with some gel Heather had picked out and paid for. "Much better," Heather said.

Heather stepped into the changing booth while Cody exited. She came out a few minutes later in a small black dress that clung to her curves. She turned around and showed a gold ring on her back that the dress was tied to on the vertical ends.

"What do you think?" Heather asked. Cody and DJ stammered like idiots, unable to form coherent thoughts from the amount of back skin she was showing off. "Perfect," Heather said. Heather and Cody paid for their new clothes and put the ones they wore to the store inside store bags. They gave the bags to DJ, who would take them back to the hotel so the two of them could go right to their date.

"Can I have a quick word with Cody first," DJ asked. Heather nodded her head yes and DJ walked with Cody some distance away. "You nervous?" he asked.

"As hell," Cody answered. "But I'm confident I can handle it and focus on Heather, which will not be hard if you know what I mean."

"I do," DJ said. "Which reminds me: if you screw you this up, I will swoop in on Heather like a hungry vulture."

"Can't blame you," Cody said. He could understand that DJ wanted to go out with a beautiful girl like Heather. More importantly, Heather deserved to go out with someone who saw her as a human being instead of a hot piece of ass or a soulless demon spawn. "You'll understand that I'm going to try my damnedest to disappoint you."

"Of course," DJ said, as he walked away so the two of them could go to their date. They made their way to a nearby restaurant, were shown to a table by a hostess and sat down.

Cody and Heather were looking over menus when Cody spoke up. "I know this isn't a good topic to start things off on," he started, "but about your twice-as-important-as-the-other-ones rule: what exactly do you think I might do to you?"

"For all I know," Heather began, "you're planning to lure me into some kind of prank to get on Gwen's good side. Or you might just be doing this as a way to play hard to get with her. Either way, I'm not going to let you get away with using me."

"I see," Cody said. "I can understand why you would think I still think about Gwen, but the only way she factors into my decision to go out with you is that I'm trying to get over her by playing the field. And to be completely honest, for all I know, you're doing this to rub it in Alejandro's face how you were able to resist his charms."

"He is not going to take the news well," Heather said and got a dreamy look on her face as she pictured Alejandro's rejection.

(Heather's daydream)

"_Hi Al," Heather said standing next to Cody. "You know Cody: guy's been turned down by weird goth girl for three seasons, has a psychotic stalker with a crush and has no muscle tone. I'm dating him now because I find him more appealing than you." _

"_Por Queeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee," Alejandro cried into the air with his arms raised._

(end daydream)

Heather began chuckling as she pictured this when their waitress showed up. "Hello, my name is Peggy. Are you ready to….."

"One second," Heather interrupted. "I'm in the middle of enjoying something." There was an awkward silence for about 5 seconds before she spoke up again. "Yes, I'm ready to order. What about you Cody?"

_I really wish that had occurred to me earlier, _Heather thought. _I'd have been much less conflicted about this._

"I'm ready too," Cody said. Heather ordered a steak (she was feeling carnivorous that night) and Cody ordered a pasta dish. The waitress wrote down their orders and took off. "Something funny happened to me earlier today."

"What's that?" Heather asked.

"I went to see Sierra at the hospital to tell her about this, and she said you already did that last night."

"I did. I needed to deal with Sierra sooner or later and I figured it would be best to get it out of the way before she recovered enough to try to strangle me at the slightest whim. So I saw her right before I asked you out."

"Did you really need to ask Sierra first? It's not like she's my mom."

"No: she's your number 1 fan who almost killed me with an oversized power tool the last time she thought something was going on between us, and that was when it was just one of Alejandro's numerous lies."

"Right," Cody said, understanding how Sierra could be very intimidating.

"She took the news much better than I thought she would," Heather continued. "I told her why I wanted to go out with you and she was cool with it. I always thought she would be more interested in killing you with her bare hands than giving you the freedom to date someone else."

"There's a reason for that," Cody said. "Sierra and I had a very frank talk about her…..," Cody trailed off as he tried to think of the right term.

"Obsessive creepiness and general lack of sanity," Heather suggested.

"Yeah, let's go with that," Cody said. "Anyway, I told Sierra I thought of her as my best friend on the way to Hawaii. When we got on the boat Chris sent to pick us up, I went over some things with her about what best friends do and do not do with each other."

"Let me guess: the 'do not do' list was full of all the things she did that violated your personal space and right to knowingly marry someone of your choice."

"Minus the marriage thing, yes. Anyway, Sierra took this really well. I'm not sure if it was because she realized how much I didn't like her doing those things or if she was ecstatic about me throwing her a bone. Either way, it doesn't matter. Sierra even said that when she regains enough fine motor control to use a pen, she's going to write up some fake papers so we can get a fake enolment for our fake marriage. Her words, not mine."

The two of them talked for a few minutes more about very general things when their food arrived. They started eating and resumed conversation after about a minute.

"Tell me Cody," Heather began as she put a piece of steak in her mouth and ate it. "Did you hear about the impromptu reunion concert of the Drama Brothers that happened in the first Aftermath?"

"I did," Cody answered. "What about it?"

"Considering that success, an actual reunion could be very lucrative," Heather said.

Cody considered this while he ate his pasta. A more permanent reunion would involve having to settle the creative differences with Harold that led to the band's breakup. But there was nothing to lose from trying and another taste of success would be very welcome. "That's a great idea Heather," Cody said.

"You're just agreeing with me right off the bat?" Heather asked in surprise.

"Do you not want me to agree with you?" Cody asked awkwardly.

"It's not that," Heather said. "I have a history of people disagreeing with me on principle or telling me I don't know what I'm talking about. Like in season 2, when I suggested taking film equipment up a hill relay race style and was told that while it was a good idea, the team wouldn't be using it because I thought of it. Or when I was noticing Gwen's suspicious behavior in the prison break challenge and it was implied that I automatically wrong about her, which I wasn't by the way, on account of being me. Or this last season when I was repeatedly told that I liked Alejandro despite my protests."

Cody eyes widened in shock once Heather was done with her tirade. He wasn't sure what to say so he kept eating pasta in the hopes that if he used his mouth for eating, it would decrease the odds of him saying something stupid.

"Anyway," Heather continued, "I was expecting you to fight me on this so it was a pleasant surprise for you to agree with me right away."

"Okay," Cody said, glad to see that Heather had calmed down. Unfortunately, he was about to rile her up again to tempt his curiosity. "So you were never attracted to Alejandro at all?" he asked.

Heather breathed out and placed her hand on her forehead as she thought of her answer. "I was tempted occasionally. But then I remembered how he used Bridgette and Leshawna and told myself that it would be very stupid of me to trust him. And Alejandro proved me right about him when he used Courtney as well. And after I took advantage of his feelings for me in the final challenge, he'd have his own reasons to not trust me. I have enough trust issues of my own without tackling our histories of backstabbing and opportunism."

"Thank you for sharing that with me," Cody said with a slight grin. He was pleased himself that he hadn't made Heather angry by bringing up Alejandro, as well as how the ways he was not like Alejandro bode will for future developments with Heather.

….

The two of them finished their meal and went back to the hotel. It was now around 10 o'clock and they were outside Heather's room. Heather opened the door, stood in the doorway and turned around to face Cody. "I had a great time tonight Cody," Heather said.

"Me too," Cody replied.

"Want to go to the beach tomorrow?" Heather asked.

Cody began thinking about what going to the beach with Heather would be like: rubbing suntan lotion into her back, her rubbing lotion into his back, seeing her in a bikini while she'd be okay with him looking at her in it. "Sounds awesome," Cody said with a smile, trying to keep his lecherous excitement from being too obvious.

Cody decided to try something risky and move in for a good night kiss. He leaned towards Heather, stood on his tip toes to compensate for his shortness and pressed his lips onto Heather's. Heather began returning the kiss and the two them stood like that for about ten seconds.

"See you tomorrow Cody," Heather said flirtasously before closing the door.

Cody was grinning from ear to ear over how well this date went. He was in a state of near euphoria as he walked towards his own room. However, his good mood came to an end as he saw a familiar goth girl standing outside his room, and she did not look happy.

Cody gulped and tried to prepare himself for the inevitable awkwardness. "Hi Gwen," he said.

…..

Author's notes: I'm going to be evil and end the chapter like this. Gwen is going to be acting in ways that could be considered OOC, but keep in mind that she has changed since season 1. For example, back then she didn't suck. Also, 'por que' is Spanish for why.


	4. Chapter 4

It was 7:30 A.M the following morning. Heather had gotten up early to go scuba diving. She went to where the boat was, rented her equipment and got aboard. She was a little surprised to see that Bridgette was one of the dozen other people on the boat. As soon as their eyes met, Bridgette turned away to avoid her.

Heather was wondering if it would be worth it to reach out to her in attempt to make things go smoothly. _This probably won't work, but what the hell, _Heather thought.

"Hi Bridgette," Heather said.

"Hello Heather," Bridgette said with such obvious disdain that someone could have mistaken her doing an impersonation of Jerry Seinfield greeting Newman. With this less-than-cordial exchange out of the way, Bridgette decided that there was something very interesting to her left and began looking in that direction with great dedication.

_Why can't it always be fun when I'm right? _Heather asked herself.

…

After the second dive, Heather had tried to reach out again. She offered Bridgette a mint to get rid of the unpleasant aftertaste of compressed air. Heather did this even though she only had one mint and the aftertaste of compressed air was her least favorite thing about scuba diving.

Heather had noticed that Bridgette had spent all the time on the boat taking turns between ignoring her and giving her the evil eye. This was starting to creep Heather out since Bridgette was normally one of the nicest people of the Total Drama contestants. So Heather decided to try to alleviate the tension.

Unfortunately, the mint offering went even worse than Heather's earlier attempt at a polite greeting. Bridgette gave Heather a stern glare while reaching into her bag and eating a mint of her own, maintaining the glare the whole time.

_This is starting to get ri-god-damned-diculous, _Heather thought as ate her mint. _On the plus side, the inside of my mouth no longer tastes like ass._ Sometime later, the boat returned to its dock and all the divers got out. After Heather and Bridgette had returned their rented equipment, Heather approached the blond girl.

"What the hell is going on?" Heather asked.

"You know exactly what's going on," Bridgette replied in indicating her decision to use passive-aggression.

_Let's see, _Heather began thinking. _Bridgette usually doesn't put this much effort into giving me the cold shoulder, so what could have happened recently to make her like this? _That was when Heather realized that the most out-of-the-ordinary thing to happen recently was her date with Cody and that probably wasn't a coincidence.

"You heard about my date with Cody last night, didn't you," Heather asked.

"Yes," Bridgette said. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

"For asking Cody out?" Heather asked with her eyebrow raised in puzzlement.

"For trying to take advantage of him so you can use him as a pawn against Gwen," Bridgette clarified.

_Of course you'd think that, _Heather thought. It wasn't a surprise that to her that people were jumping to conclusions about her dating Cody: it had become pretty routine for people to think of her as evil even when she wasn't up to something.

"That is not why I asked him out," Heather said and began telling Heather about how Cody got Harold and DJ to sing to her in an attempt to cheer up. "And then he started going on about how I'm not as evil as so many people have told me I am. Hell, Alejandro didn't even do that when he was trying to get on my good side for an alliance. Speaking of which, I want you to think for a second about how Alejandro is going to take the news of my dating Cody."

"He is not going to take that well," Bridgette said as she grinned while thinking it over. Heather waited awhile and wondered if Bridgette was enjoying her own daydream as much as Heather enjoyed hers. _Surfer chick definitely has her own issues with Al after what happened in the Yukon. _

"So you see…..," Heather began.

"I'm not done yet," Bridgette interrupted. A few seconds later, Bridgette's grin faded. "All right. I will give you that some good can come from you and Cody going out and that you might not be going out with him only to screw with Gwen. But what do you have to say about Cody and Gwen's little spat last night?"

"The what?" Heather asked with obvious shock.

"So you haven't heard," Bridgette said. "I wasn't there personally but from what I understand, it went something like this."

(Begin flashback)

"_How could you ask Heather out?" Gwen angrily asked._

"_Heather asked me out," Cody clarified._

"_Whatever," Gwen replied with enough venom to make it clear how she saw that as an irrelevant piece of information. "She's only using you as a way to get to me. You realize that, don't you?"_

"_There's more to it than that," Cody said._

"_Yeah right," Gwen scoffed then took a deep breath as she prepared herself for the next subject. "I know you're not happy that I'm with Duncan now, but there are other ways to deal with it than stooping to Heather's level."_

"_What exactly do you want here, Gwen?" Cody asked, making it obvious that he was not pleased with Gwen casually insulting Heather._

"_I want you to call off whatever you have going on with Heather," Gwen said._

"_No," Cody answered. "Heather did not ask me out as part of plan against you. I know that because of how happy she was when I told her how I don't think she's pure evil."_

"_How could you possibly think that?" Gwen asked with combination of shock and anger._

"_I have my reasons," Cody said. "But my point is that me and Heather going out has nothing to do with you. You'd know that if you weren't self-centered enough to think Heather and I only have lives that revolve around you!"_

(End flashback)

"There was some more yelling and arguing after that," Bridgette said as she finished her story.

"Let me get this straight," Heather began, "you, Gwen and probably others think that there's no way Cody would have snapped at her like that if not for me, so I must be planning to use him against Gwen and he's pissed and depressed enough about her hooking up with Duncan to go along with whatever I have in mind."

"That's right," Bridgette replied.

"How exactly is taking him off Gwen's hands hurting her?" Heather asked. "Personally, I'm insulted you think I can't come up with a better evil plan than that."

"You could turn Cody against Gwen," Bridgette answered. "She'd lose a friend and gain an enemy."

"But that would simplify things for her," Heather countered. "She can hate Cody's guts for lusting after her and not feel bad about it. As opposed to now, where he's on the 'I only think of you as friend' list and he's not completely happy about it."

"I suppose," Bridgette said.

"Besides, I don't need to hurt Gwen right now," Heather continued. "Not after how she became her own worst enemy with that whole Duncan thing. For now, I'm content to sit back while she deals with the consequences of her actions."

"That didn't exactly make her look good," Bridgette said aloud.

"And yet here you are, jumping at the chance to take Gwen's side over mine," Heather said.

"I'm not entirely happy with how Gwen and Duncan became a couple," Bridgette answered. "But doesn't make it okay for you to take advantage of Cody so you can kick her when she's down."

"Well, you're wrong on both those accounts, so there," Heather replied. She decided that while she was dealing with accusations, she might as well get some more out of the way. "By the way, have you heard of any other news involving Cody?"

"What other news?" Bridgette asked. "What did you do?"

"I may have suggested that Cody get his band back together," Heather said and Bridgette glared at her once more. "It's not what you think."

"Really," Bridgette said. "Because I think you're doing that to mooch off his success for financial and popularity reasons."

"I can see why you'd think that, but that's not the case. You're familiar with all the ways Cody is not an ideal male specimen, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to have to deal with repercussions for that. And I don't mean the accusations of 'what are you up to': I'm talking about the 'what the hell were you thinking' type of repercussions. However, the damage is lessened if they see I'm dating a geeky twerp who's also a successful musician. I just want to eat my cake and have it too."

"You mean have your cake and eat it too," Bridgette corrected.

"I never got that expression," Heather said. "Anyone can have cake and eat it. But to eat your cake and still have it: that's the tricky part."

"Okay," Bridgette said as she began taking everything in.

"Does Geoff know that you're so critical of my dating Cody?" Heather asked.

"He doesn't," Bridgette answered. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that Geoff was there when I asked Cody out," Heather said. "He was very supportive."

"Really," Bridgette said, not sure what to make of that. "Here's a thought: let's go find Cody and he can tell me about how not evil you are."

"Sounds great," Heather said, and the two went back to the hotel to find Cody.

Bridgette wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but she decided that this whole matter might be less black and white than she originally thought. _If Geoff thinks there's nothing fishy going on here, I should trust him about this, _Bridgette thought. _Still, there's nothing wrong with a little fact checking._


	5. Chapter 5

Author's notes: I'm not sure how to put this into the story, so I'll just put it here. People have gotten so used to thinking of Heather as the bad guy that they can't help themselves, even though Gwen and Leshawna don't really have the kind of moral high ground to look down on her after their own actions in TDWT.

…

Heather and Bridgette got back to the hotel and found Cody. They decided to take their conversation to his room. Bridgette needed to use the bathroom, so she asked to use the one in Cody's room to get it out of the way.

"Okay," Bridgette said once she was done with her business. She decided to start of with the easier question before moving on to the more difficult one. "So what's this I hear about a reunion of the Drama Brothers?"

"How did you hear about that already?" Cody asked. "I just got through talking with Harold, Trent and Justin about settling our creative differences and agreeing to a reunion less than an hour ago."

"Heather brought it up when I bumped into her earlier. She said it was her idea in the first place."

"That's right. During our date she said that a successful reunion would be very likely considering how that improvised one went in the first aftermath."

"And did it ever occur to you that she might have an ulterior motive?" Bridgette asked.

"No," Cody answered. "She made a good point about the probability of success, and I'm not going to ignore that because of her past."

"Keep in mind that Heather just lost a million dollars," Bridgette pointed out. "It doesn't strike you as possible this might be her idea of making up for that?"

"No, because I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt," Cody said. "You know Bridgette, Geoff was with me when Heather asked me out and…"

"I know about Geoff," Bridgette interrupted, a little intrigued with Cody's confirmation about Geoff's involvement. "Moving on: what about how she took advantage of Alejandro's feelings for her in the final challenge? You're not worried she might try something like that?"

"Alejandro was an evil dick who got a taste of his own medicine. I'd think that you, of all people, would appreciate that."

"I'm not saying I didn't greatly enjoy watching that scheming piece of shit fail in such a humiliating fashion," Bridgette said while grinning, unknowingly letting her vindictive side shine through a bit. "I'm just saying that it wouldn't be so cool if Heather did it to someone less deserving, like yourself."

"I'm gonna stop you there for a minute Bridgette," Heather said. "For the sake of argument, let's say I do have an evil plan that involves leeching off Cody's musical success. In that case, playing nice with him is in my best interests."

"Besides," Cody interjected, "this plan isn't just helping her. It's helping me, Trent, Justin, Harold and DJ."

"Is DJ a part of the band now?" Bridgette asked.

"No, but I'm going to get him and his mom to handle catering for our reunion tour," Cody answered. "They were living out of that tour bus before this season started, which got destroyed chasing Chris so they could really use the job. What I'm trying to get at here is that if Heather is up to something, which I don't think she is but if she is, it's helping out five other people. I'd say that's pretty charitable for an evil plan."

"Okay," Bridgette said as she took a deep breath. "I'll concede that Heather might not be up to anything nefarious. And even if she is, the good is going to outweigh the bad. But what about your spat with Gwen last night?"

"Oh that," Cody said nervously. "I was really pissed at Gwen when she asked me to call things off with Heather. Apparently, it's wrong for me to try dating someone else. I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life waiting for Gwen like a lost puppy while she goes out with other guys. At least that's what Gwen seems to think."

"Then something occurred to me," Cody continued. "I've had quite the run of good luck lately. I reached an understanding with Sierra about her fangirlism, I got a beautiful and misunderstood girl to warm up to me. I don't have to just take Gwen's crap if I don't want to. Especially if she's as much of a lost cause as three seasons of her turning me down would indicate."

"Okay," Bridgette said awkwardly. She was taken off guard hearing these accusations Cody was making against Gwen. "I'm sure Gwen was just worried about what would happen if Heather sunk her claws deep enough into you."

"Well she did a really crappy job of making that clear," Cody said with a trace of anger. "She asks me to throw away the greatest dating opportunity of my life just because the circumstances are inconvenient for her and I'm just supposed to blindly obey: I don't think so."

"There is one good thing that has come out of this," Cody continued. "Thanks to our fight, I've gone from trying to be over Gwen to being over her."

"That's great," Heather said enthusiastically and was then met by an angry glare from Bridgette.

_Oh great, this again, _Heather thought.

"What is it this time Bridgette?" she asked in a tone that made it clear she was getting tired of having to constantly explain herself.

"You say you're not trying to turn Cody against Gwen," Bridgette began, "but you seem to be taking this news really well."

"Let me ask you a question Bridgette," Heather said. "Would you want to date a guy who has serious issues relating to another girl and is taking his sweet time getting over them?"

"No," Bridgette said as she placed her hand on her forehead as a show of frustration. She was starting to get really tired of Heather making good points: it was starting to make it very difficult to interpret her every action as villainous.

"Can I change the subject for a while?" Cody asked and faced Heather. "I've heard about this rumor going around about how you're supposedly using me against Gwen," he said. "My snapping at her just heaped fuel onto the fire. I'm sorry about that."

"That's all right Cody," Heather said. "It's not like people being vocal about how they think the worst of me is a new thing."

"I'm still sorry though," Cody said. "In my defense, I had no idea so many people had a low enough opinion about me to think I'm physically incapable of growing a spine when it comes to Gwen on my own."

"Which reminds me," Cody said as he turned towards Bridgette. "Who are the people who believe this theory?"

"You know," Bridgette said awkwardly as she scratched the back of her head. "People."

"WHICH PEOPLE?" Cody yelled.

"Whoa," Heather said as she placed her hands on Cody's shoulders. "Down Cody, down. What are you even going to do if you find out this list of people?"

"I don't know," Cody said in frustration. "Probably just yell at them about how hurt and insulted I am. Maybe ask them what the weather's like up their own buts."

"What?" Heather said with a look of puzzlement.

"That's where their heads are for them to come up with such a deliberate misinterpretation of the facts," Cody explained.

"Oh," Heather said, then she chuckled a bit at his joke.

"There's something else I want to talk to you about," Cody said. "I want to talk to Leshawna about how she owes you an apology for what happened in Germany."

Heather was silent for a while as she took that in. She then put him in a hug "Cody," She began. "I am very touched that you would want to do that for me. And as much as I would like Leshawna to admit how much she f$ked up by beating the shit out of me for trying to warn her about Alejandro, that is a great example of something you should not do."

"Wait, what?" Cody asked in shock as he broke the hug apart.

"Standing up for yourself is one thing, but standing up for me is quite another. Do you have any idea the kind of validation that will add to the 'I'm using you' theory? You'll be digging our own graves, so to speak."

"That doesn't change the fact that it's the right thing to do."

"Well how about the fact that it won't go well?" Heather asked. "Best case scenario: she thinks you're an idiot and blows you off. Worst case scenario: Leshawna knocks out one of your teeth on the grounds that you like me so much, we should have more in common."

Cody paused for a bit while he gave Heather's words some thought. As much as he liked Heather, he wasn't exactly dying to get a first hand experience of what she went through in Germany. But it wasn't right for Leshawna to get a free pass just because she was scary. "I'm willing to take that risk," Cody answered.

"Well I'm not!" Heather said exclaimed before she hugged Cody once again. "You've been so great to me lately. I don't want to see you get the shit beat out of you because of me."

"Okay Heather," Cody said. "I won't confront Leshawna."

Cody returned the hug and was enjoying it immensely. It was much more gentle compared to all the hugs Sierra had given him where she tried to squeeze the life out of him (at least that's how it felt to Cody).

_Awwww, _Bridgette thought as she looked at the sight in front of her. She had come to the conclusion that she was mistaken in thinking that Heather was using in Cody. She was now convinced that Heather did care for Cody.

_Too bad I've already got that plan in motion,_ Bridgette thought, regretting what was about to happen.


	6. Chapter 6

Heather and Cody were still hugging when they heard a loud banging on the door. This happened a few times before the person responsible spoke up. "Open this door or I'm going to knock it down," Leshawna bellowed.

"Shit," Cody and Heather said at the same time as they ended their hug.

"One second Leshawna," Bridgette said loudly. "You're probably wondering what she's doing here," she said to Cody to Heather.

"Not really," Cody said. "I'm actually wondering if we can tie a rope with towels and bed sheets and climb down the balcony." This was definitely a worst-case scenario: stuck in a fourth floor hotel room with an irate black girl blocking the only exit.

"There's something I need to explain," Bridgette said as she reached into the front pocket of her sweat-shirt and pulled out a cell phone. "When I went to the bathroom earlier….."

"You called Leshawna about talking to us," Heather interrupted. "You put your cell phone on speaker mode and left it on so it could be used as listening device."

"Yeah," Bridgette said.

"Why?" Heather asked, then noticed that Cody had come back from the bathroom carrying towels. "Cut that out."

"Why?" Cody asked.

"I thought you were eager to confront Leshawna until I talked you out of it," Heather said.

"I didn't exactly have this in mind," Cody said. "I was thinking of something involving plenty of witnesses and several avenues of escape."

"Whatever," Heather began. "Well since it looks like we're going to have to confront Leshawna anyway, here's what going to happen: I'll do most of the confronting but I want you to try to stop her if things get physical. And if Leshawna decides to relieve me of more of my teeth, you're going to pay my dentist bills."

"Okay," Cody said.

"I just wanted to get some information straight from Cody about his spat with Gwen and the Drama Brothers reunion," Bridgette said, answering Heather's earlier question. "We keep Leshawna waiting any longer, she really is going to knock the door down," she said as she walked towards the door and opened it.

Leshawna walked through the door looking very pissed off. Gwen was there as well, though she looked like she'd rather be somewhere else. _When it rains, it pours _Cody thought.

"What are you pissed about this time Leshawna?" Heather asked.

"A lot of things," Leshawna answered. "I'll start with how you're talking about me like I go around beating up everyone who disagrees with me."

"I think my missing tooth would disagree with you," Heather said then tilted her head and pulled her mouth away to show the gold tooth that replaced the one Leshawna took. "Which reminds me," Heather said after she stopped pushing part of her mouth away. "I would like my tooth back."

"I don't have it."

"Really," Heather said sarcastically. "You expect me to believe you weren't so proud of what you did on that mountain top that you hung onto it as a trophy?"

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a white tooth against white snow?" Leshawna retorted loudly.

_That answers that question,_ Cody thought, then looked at Gwen who was intently studying her own feet. "You want to join in yelling Gwen?" he asked.

"No, but there is something I want to get off my chest," Gwen said then took a deep breath to ready herself. "I'm sorry about last night."

"What?" The other four people in the room said simultaneously. This surprised them because Gwen wasn't exactly the apologizing type, especially if Heather was concerned. While that would normally be true about Gwen, she had gained some doubts about her own self-righteousness after hearing Cody go on about why he stood up for himself after his date.

"You were right about me earlier," Gwen continued. "I didn't care about protecting you from Heather's influence. I just wanted to throw a monkey wrench into whatever scheme I was convinced she had and the easiest way to do that was to talk you into calling the plan off with her. I see now that that was very self-centered of me for all the reasons you brought up. I'm sorry."

"You should be," Heather said. "Jumping to conclusions about my motives just so you could look at me and say 'as much I f#^ked up with Duncan, at least I'm still a better person than Heather.'"

"That is uncalled for Heather," Cody said sternly.

"But that doesn't stop her from being right," Gwen said as she placed her hand on her forehead. "As much as I enjoy being with Duncan, I'm not completely proud of myself for how it happened. So I could really use the luxury of looking down on her so I can feel better about myself. But you're right, Heather: that doesn't give me the right to accuse you of stuff you're not planning. I'm sorry for that too."

"Apologies accepted," Cody said then faced Leshawna. "And since we're on the subject of apologies….."

"Not gonna happen short stuff," Leshawna cut him off. "Maybe I went overboard in Germany….."

"Maybe?" Heather shouted in protest of Leshawna's wording.

"But I refuse to apologize to her," Leshawna finished. "I know you don't think she's less evil than when we first met her, though I've got no idea why, but that doesn't erase all the acts of bitchiness she's performed in the past," she said then faced Heather. "There isn't a doubt in my mind that you deserved the beating I gave you in a big picture kind of way."

"Fine, I deserved it," Heather said in exasperation. "And since you've punished me for my transgressions, can we put everything that's happened between us in the past and move on?"

_I hope this change of tactics works,_ Heather thought. _Leshawna's made it pretty clear that she's not going to apologize just because it's the right thing to do. But I might have better luck convincing her that she settled our score in Germany and we can start from scratch. _

"No," Leshawna said. "Far as I'm concerned, you haven't changed at all and you never will."

_Son of a Bitch,_ Heather inwardly cursed.

"Leshawna," Bridgette spoke up, "Heather is being very reasonable here and is willing to meet you half way. You should do the same."

"You do remember that you're on my side?" Leshawna asked. "Don't you Blondie?"

"I'm changing sides right now," Bridgette said, causing Leshawna's eyes to widen in shock. "I'm not saying Heather is a saint now, but she has made some progress in terms of being less of a total bitch and she should be encouraged to make further progress. But that isn't going to happen if you're going to hold on to grudges that have already been settled."

Leshawna remained quite for a moment as she processed the surfer girl's words. "Can you believe this shit Gwen," she said as she turned to her friend, only to find out that Gwen wasn't in the room anymore. Unbeknownst to the others, Gwen had slipped out while Leshawna was the center of attention, not wanting to deal with further awkwardness. "Screw you all!" Leshawna shouted as she began leaving the room.

"Harold doesn't share your opinion about me," Heather said quickly to Leshawna, causing her to stop walking.

"Don't listen to her!" Cody shouted. He knew what Heather was up to: she was trying to convince Leshawna that not everyone was in her corner about Heather. But that did give Heather the right to jeopardize Harold's chances with Leshawna just to prove a point to the self-righteous black girl. "You know Heather: she'd say anything to get to you at this point."

"No Cody," Heather said. "Leshawna has to know that the guy she's currently dating and spent over two seasons pining over her does not agree with her on this."

Leshawna's first instinct was to go with what Cody was saying. Then she remembered how Harold tried to reach out to Heather during the hunt for the million dollars after season 1 and tried to help her win in the final challenge of season 3. She then came to the conclusion that Cody was lying about Heather lying.

_Damn,_ Leshawna thought. She had seen the fans reaction to what she did in Germany, and they were universally negative for the most part. That didn't bother Leshawna at all: as far as she was concerned, none of them knew what they were talking about since they'd never dealt with Heather's bitchiness personally. _But Harold and Bridgette have, _Leshawna thought, realizing that the time had come to bury the hatchet.

"Heather," Leshawna said and was interrupted by Cody bolting out of the room. "Where's he got to be that's so damn important?"

"He's probably rushing to give Harold the head's up about how I just let the cat out of the bag," Heather explained. "Anyway, you were saying?"

"I'm sorry about what happened in Germany," Leshawna said. "And if that 'putting the past behind us' thing is still on the table, I'd like to take you up on it."

"Deal," Heather said as she held out her hand. Leshawna grabbed her hand and they both shook on their new truce. Leshawna then left, leaving Heather and Bridgette alone in the room.

_God, I hope this goes better than the last one, _Heather thought.

"Bridgette," Heather said as she faced the surfer girl. "Thanks for changing your mind about me and helping out with Leshawna."

"You're very welcome," Bridgette said with a smile.

"Does this make us friends now?" Heather asked.

"Yes," Bridgette answered.

Heather was very happy to hear this. Not only had she gotten Gwen and Leshawna off her ass, but she had a new friend as well. She briefly thought about hugging Bridgette, but thought that might be a bit much.

_Aw, what the hell, _Heather thought as she changed her mind and embraced Bridgette. The two them hugged for a while before Bridgette spoke up.

"This is pretty surprising," Bridgette said. "I had no idea you were such hugger."

"Don't get used to it," Heather said. "It's just been a very emotional last couple of minutes."

Author's notes: There is one chapter left. It's going to be an epilogue: I'm going to tie up some dangling plot threads as well as have that beach date that was mentioned at the end of chapter 3.


	7. Chapter 7

After settling things with Heather, Leshawna began looking for Harold. It took awhile, but she did find him.

"Hi," Harold said awkwardly, not looking forward to this conversation. Cody had warned about this, but that did not change the fact that he'd rather not deal with this.

"Hi," Leshawna returned the greeting with awkwardness of her own. There was silence between the two them for a while until Leshawna spoke up again. "Look…."

"I'm sorry about not being completely honest with you," Harold interrupted. "I didn't want to do it, but you'd finally agreed to start going out with me after so long. I'd risk throwing that away by confronting you about how what you did in Germany wasn't as awesome as you seem to think it was. I might not think Heather's the embodiment of all evil like you do, but I don't like her enough to do that. Please forgive me."

"You'll be glad to know that I'm mad at you, baby," Leshawna said. "I've reached an understanding of sorts with Heather, so I don't think she's the embodiment of all evil anymore. And what would I even be mad at you for? Having an opinion of your own? Not being full enough of yourself to consider the possibility that Heather might actually be human?"

"So everything's cool now?" Harold asked.

"Yes baby," Leshawna assured him.

_Oh thank god, _Harold thought breathed a sigh of relief, immensely grateful that matter had resolved before it turned into a crisis.

…..

Bridgette caught up with Geoff and was going to ask him about his earlier support of Heather and Cody's relationship. "Hey Geoff," Bridgette said as she gave her boyfriend a peck on the lips.

"Hey Bridgette," Geoff said seductively as he leaned in to start another make out session with the beautiful surfer.

"Not now Geoff," Bridgette said as she placed her hand on his chest to stop him. "I need to ask you."

"Shoot," Geoff asked as he moved away.

"You were there when Heather asked Cody out and were very supportive about it," Bridgette began and Geoff nodded yes. "What I want to know is why?" Bridgette asked in a tone that made it very clear she was more curious than angry.

"I know Heather has done a lot of not cool things before," Geoff began. "But she hasn't done anything really bad in a while. Plus, you saw her take down that asshole Alejandro. If that's not enough to earn her a second chance, then what it is?"

24 hours ago, Bridgette would have countered that Heather did not deserve a second chance. But since then, her opinion of Heather had done a complete 180. She now knew that the Asian teen was not the irredeemable monster Bridgette had originally thought and knew that Geoff was right to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Oh Geoff," Bridgette said longingly as she leaned forward and the two of them began making out yet again.

…..

Cody came back from warning Harold and found Heather again. "Hey Cody," Heather said with a smile. "When do you want to hit the beach?"

"We need to talk about something first," Cody said then put his hand on his forehead as a gesture of dread. "I am not completely happy with you. You are definitely less of a total bitch than when I first met you, but you still have a long way to go in terms of being a nice person."

"What specifically is your problem?" Heather asked, hoping she could defuse this situation before it escalated.

"How about how you accused Gwen of thinking you were evil just so she could feel better about herself?" Cody said. "Aside from the severity of the accusation, don't you think it was a little hypocritical jumping to conclusions so you could accuse Gwen of jumping to conclusions?"

"Look Cody," Heather began. "Back when I was still queen bee of my high school, I looked down on people all the time and I felt great about it. So that thing with Gwen was less of a blind accusation and more of a highly educated guess. Besides, who's the real bitch here: Gwen for doing the deed or me for calling her out on it? I'll give you a hint: it's not me."

"All right, I'll give you that one," Cody said. "But what about how you told Leshawna about what Harold really thought of her opinion of you. I know Harold didn't say it out loud, but he trusted with that information and you broke his trust just to shove Leshawna off her high horse. Now I completely understand why you wanted to do that: her self-righteousness was starting to piss me off too and she didn't even punch out one my teeth. But that doesn't justify what you did. By the way, when I warned Harold I apologized to him on your behalf, giving you the benefit of the doubt that you're actually sorry about."

"Which I am," Heather pointed out. "And I promise that I will find some way to make it up to him if I just destroyed his relationship with Leshawna. But tell me this Cody: are you saying Leshawna had no right at all to know what Harold really thought of her?"

"Ummmmm," Cody stammered as he thought of as response to this. "Isn't a little lying okay when dating?"

"Have you ever lied to me?"

"No."

"And you never will if you know what's good for you," Heather said with a grin. "That should answer your question." With that out of the way, they started talking about plans to hit the beach.

Cody was very pleased with himself right now. He had just had what could be considered his first fight with Heather and it hadn't ended in disaster. He'd had his reservations about confronting Heather because he was really enjoying what they had.

He really liked Heather. She was strong, determined and very beautiful. It hadn't occurred to Cody until just know, but those were the things he originally saw in Gwen. But unlike Gwen, Heather had actually decided to give him a shot. And even better, she liked him without being totally nutso about it like Sierra was when he first her.

…

About a half hour later, Cody and Heather were walking to the beach with shirts on in addition to their swimsuits and Heather carrying a bag with supplies. They found a spot and laid their stuff down. Heather took her shirt off, got some sun tan lotion out of her bad and started applying some.

Cody took off his shirt and started putting on sun tan lotion as well while admiring how Heather looked in her bikini. He'd seen her in it before of course, but knowing that they dating now made the sight even better than it's apparent aesthetic value.

"Can you goo up my back?" Heather said to Cody.

"Of course," Cody replied while restraining his enthusiasm at the prospect. He put some lotion on his hands and began rubbing it in. He was greatly enjoying caressing Heather's back. Heather was enjoying it as well: Cody was being very gentle compared to other times guys had done this.

After a while, he was done and Heather faced Cody. "Your turn," she said. Cody turned around and she began rubbing the lotion into his back.

_I love my life,_ Cody thought as Heather was massaging the lotion into his back. He was trying very hard to restrain himself from moaning in pleasure because he knew how pervy that would make him look. He was hoping this would end soon so he wouldn't make a fool out of himself. But on the other, a part of him wanted this to go on forever because he was enjoying it so much. It was confusing.

Unbeknownst to him, Heather was deliberately trying to be provocative with the rubbing in process. She was so grateful for all the ways Cody had given a crap about her that she wanted to express her gratitude in a physical form.

Shortly later, Heather was done and Cody was glad that he had been able to control himself. "Let's go for a walk first," Heather said. "I have some things I want to go over."

"Okay," Cody agreed. The two of them started walking along the beach, enjoying the sun and the sight of the ocean.

"The first thing I need to bring up," Heather began, "and I can't be any clearer about this, I am not Japanese. One of my pet peeves is when people assume I'm Japanese when I'm not: I'm of Chinese descent. Even though, culturally speaking, I don't consider myself Chinese at all."

"Funny story," Heather said as she changed the subject. "When I was around 8, the others kids liked to make fun of me for my Asianness. One of the ways they did this was by calling me Mulan. That didn't bother me at all because they were getting my ethnicity right for a change."

_That and the movie was a great symbol of female empowerment, but that's really another thing, _Heather added in her head. "The other thing I need to bring up is that I had a weight problem when I was younger."

"Really," Cody said while looking over her slim body and finding that hard to belief. "What was your secret?"

"Bulimia," Heather said matter-of-factly, completely ignorant of Cody stopping in his tracks from shock.

"What," Cody said flatly as Heather turned around and noticed that Cody stopped walking.

"I put my finger down my mouth…." Heather began but was interrupted.

"I know bulimia is Heather. You just can't say something like that and expect me to immediately process it. And I so didn't need to know that."

"I know, but I wanted you to know that."

"Why?"

"Because I trust you."

The two of them began walking again while Cody took this in. Cody was incredibly touched by this: he remembered how Heather had said she had trust issues during their date. _And having people make her out to be an inhuman monster definitely couldn't have helped, _he thought. It was incredibly heartwarming to have Heather reach out to him with this.

They walked for a while and then turned around. Heather spoke up again. "One last thing Cody. I could really use your help drafting apologies to all the people I've pissed off before."

"Of course I'll help you with that," Cody said. "I have to ask though: what brought this up?"

"I've been thinking about this for a while," Heather asked. "Being a bitch hasn't exactly gotten me anywhere lately and I don't really have anything to lose by trying to change. I would have actually apologized before this last season started if I had any reason to think people would have given me the benefit of the doubt about my sincerity."

"I mean, look what happened with Leshawna," Heather continued. "We worked out a truce of sorts after my elimination in season 2 and it only took a few weeks for that to shatter like a glass vase hit with a sledgehammer. And a few months after that, we had the Germany incident. But if I can convince her and Gwen that making me out to be the bad guy out of convenience or force of habit isn't cool, then maybe apologizing won't be as pointless as I originally thought."

_Besides that, _Heather thought, _whenever I hear you go on about how I'm not pure evil, even though I don't understand why, I feel the urge to prove you right._

"That's very big of you Heather," Cody said.

"Hold off your praise Cody," Heather said. "Some things I'm refusing to apologize for. For example, Leshawna isn't getting any apologies: as far as I'm concerned, she got her payback and then some in Germany. And I'm not apologizing for arranging Gwen's elimination in season 2: she was an emotionally unstable saboteur and I did the right thing for the team by getting rid of her. Besides, I wouldn't have had to take the matter as far as I did if people hadn't been so eager to dismiss my suspicions of her."

"Fair enough," Cody said. They had arrived at the spot they left their stuff and went into the water.

_Pretty soon, we'll be going back to Canada, _Heather thought. _We won't be able to spend time with each other like this every day. Even worse, his reunion tour will be starting soon, making things even more difficult. Maybe I shouldn't have suggested that he get his band back together. Whatever. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make this work. _

…

Author's notes: and now we have reached the end of this story. I want to thank all of you who have given such monumental support for this story. It has meant a lot to me.


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